July 2013

UK press outlines self-regulation body

The UK press has moved a step closer to setting up a body for self-regulation with the publication of draft documents outlining the structure of the “Independent Press Standards Organisation.”

The move, which was attacked by Hacked Off, a victims lobbying group, could see a regulator set up in months, according to the newspaper executive leading the project. Paul Vickers, legal director at Trinity Mirror, told the BBC: “What we are doing is setting up a mechanism for creating a self-regulatory system. It will take some months to set up because we are following proper public appointment processes.” The body would have the power to impose fines of up to £1m for serious or systemic wrongdoing and to order upfront corrections, adopting many of the proposals outlined by the Leveson report on press standards and ethics. Hacked Off attacked the plans as “a cynical rebranding exercise” and a means to head off the creation of a regulator that has the backing of all three main political parties.

A Smarter, More Innovative Government for the American People

President Barack Obama held a meeting with his Cabinet and senior officials to lay out his vision for building a better, smarter, faster government over the course of his second term. During the meeting, the President directed Cabinet members and key officials in his Administration to build on the progress made over the first term, and he challenged us to improve government even further.

President Obama highlighted innovations taking place in our government that are already making a difference:

Digitizing disaster recovery: FEMA use of data analytics and internet/mobile apps to deliver better results: In response to Hurricane Sandy and the Oklahoma tornadoes, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) partnered with the U.S. Geological Survey, Civil Air Patrol, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to utilize imagery and data that identified inaccessible and destroyed homes, which enabled FEMA to expedite assistance funds to eligible applicants. FEMA has also succeeded in getting 304,000 survivors (57% of applicants) registered for assistance following Hurricane Sandy through internet and smartphone apps. The FEMA disaster recovery app also tell users how to assemble basic emergency kits and help them locate disaster recovery centers and apply for financial assistance following a disaster. This has enabled better, faster service delivered at lower costs.
Ushering out old technologies, bringing in new: The Administration has eliminated duplicative systems and accelerated the adoption of new technology used by agencies through “PortfolioStat”—a comprehensive look at agencies’ IT portfolios to identify savings. To date, the initiative has identified more than $2.5 billion in cost reductions. Read more about this effort in this blog post.
Opening government data to fuel innovation and problem-solving: For the first time in history, the Administration opened up huge amounts of government data to the American people, and put it on the internet for free. At Data.gov, you can search through and download more than 75,000 data sets – data on everything from what different hospitals charge for different procedures, to credit card complaints, to weather and climate measurements. And entrepreneurs and business owners are using that data to create jobs and solve problems that government can’t solve by itself. Learn more about the Open Data Initiative in this blog post.

Yet More Media Consolidation is not the Cure to the Problems Caused by Media Consolidation

[Commentary] People are buzzing about possible new consolidation in the cable industry. The reason isn't hard to see: in a market that is already very concentrated, only the strong survive. Programming costs keep rising and larger cable companies would have more leverage in negotiations against media giants like Viacom and Disney. As ISPs, larger cable companies would be better able to drive hard bargains with Internet content companies when it comes to interconnection agreements, or operate their own online video services.

But bigger is not better for the public. It would be unfortunate if, in response to problems caused by excessive concentration up and down the media landscape, yet more companies consolidate. This "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach might serve the short-term interests of shareholders but it would not be good for consumers or the market as a whole. Media consolidation inevitably leads to less choice and higher prices for consumers, and fewer outlets for independent and diverse creators.

Report: Subscribers to Superfast Broadband Less Likely to Churn

Results from Analysys Mason’s Connected Consumer 2013 survey indicate that broadband service providers could reduce annual rates of customer churn by as much as 3% if they were to provide “superfast” broadband services.

The report draws on a survey of 6,610 consumers in Europe and the US. Among respondents who said they planned to leave their current broadband service provider in the next six months, 14% said they would do so because services weren’t fast enough. Upgrading these customers to higher speeds could reduce a typical service provider’s monthly churn rate from 1.4% to 1.2%, yielding a 3% reduction in churn annually, according to Analysys Mason. That’s about double the growth rate for major European broadband service operators, such as Deutsche Telekom or Telefonica in their domestic markets, the research firm said. Customers who take up higher-speed broadband services are more satisfied as well as less prone to churn than those with lower-speed services, Analysys Mason added. Though price elasticity does come into play, the market research firm could not find any relationship between the price premium on superfast services and customer take-up in any of the survey countries. The firm’s analysts attributed this to:
the availability of higher-speed services is limited in geographical terms (for example, the footprint of superfast broadband is restricted)
price competition for non-superfast broadband drives the price down, so the superfast price premium can be high but still affordable for consumers
superfast is driven by both operator and demand-side factors

Former FCC chief counsel joins Paul Hastings

Sherrese Smith, who served as chief counsel and legal adviser to former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, has been named a partner at Paul Hastings LLP, the law firm announced.

Smith will join the firm's telecommunications, media and technology practice, as well as its practice on data security and privacy. She will be based in Paul Hastings's Washington office and is expected to begin her new role in August. During her time at the FCC, Smith served as senior counsel to Genachowski and a legal adviser on media, consumer and enforcement issues. Prior to that, she was the vice president and general counsel of Washington Post Digital.

Conservatives’ Aggressive Ad Campaign Seeks to Cast Doubt on Health Law

Though many of its rules will not take effect for months, President Obama’s health care law is already the subject of an aggressive advertising campaign by Republicans to sow doubts about how it will work.

In one of the largest campaigns of its kind, Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group financed in part by Charles and David Koch, will begin running television commercials this week asserting that the law will limit Americans’ health care choices. The group is spending more than $1 million on the campaign, which will initially include television advertising in Ohio and Virginia, along with online ads asking people to test their “Obamacare risk factors.”

How Netflix Is Shaking Up Hollywood

Netflix is shaking up Hollywood, spurring media companies to experiment with new ways of doing business and changing the economics of producing some types of programming. TV and film studios once saw Netflix simply as a way to make some extra money licensing older shows and movies. Now, they view the streaming site as a potential financier, a launch pad for original shows and an aggressive buyer of some programming that is less valuable in the TV world.

In the process, Netflix, along with other digital-video rivals, has become a significant driver of media-industry profit growth. Big media companies generated about $1.6 billion of revenue last year from licensing their content to such services. Though that represents just 1% of their aggregate revenue, it accounts for a large percentage of operating-income growth, according to Bernstein Research. But there are tensions, too. Netflix has gotten more demanding on exclusivity in the face of growing competition from Amazon and other outlets, and more finicky about what it will carry. In the past year it has begun dropping shows it says weren't performing well on its site and seeking to cherry-pick studio's catalogs for specific shows and episodes, some studio executives say. Analysts say that could make it harder for media companies to sustain growth in digital licensing revenues in coming years.

Here’s what can go wrong when the government builds a huge database about Americans

The National Crime Information Center database, maintained by the FBI, provides law enforcement agencies across the country with information they need to do their job, including information about outstanding arrest warrants, gang memberships, firearms records, and much more. According to the AP, it serves 90,000 agencies and receives 9 million data points every day.

The New York Police Department says one of its detectives was recently caught using the NCIC database to secretly obtain personal information about two other NYPD officers. Police officials have suggested that the man, who also hacked into several individuals’ e-mail accounts, was trying to figure out “who his ex-girlfriend, also a police officer, was chatting with.”

Local TV is a ‘Massive Growth Industry’

TV marketers who want to be sure their companies thrive in an increasingly turbulent digital age must gather their teams in a room, serve up some alcohol and brainstorm until they design the next big competitor to their industry.

“When you do that you will find that you have created something that is better than what you have, and if you don’t pursue it, someone else will.” So suggested Rishad Tobaccowala, chief strategy and innovation officer at Vivaki, in his keynote address to last week’s PromaxBDA Station Summit in Las Vegas. The longtime advertising industry gadfly had words of encouragement — and caution — for the hundreds of local TV marketing and promotion managers in his audience. TV, and more specifically video, “is a massive growth industry,” Tobaccowala said. “Video and TV remain the most powerful ways one can potentially market … and people watch more video than ever before. All of this bodes extremely well for your industry.” In addition, “local matters more and more, so things look really positive as long as we all continue to evolve with the needs of the principals we are serving.” Those principals — the audience and advertisers — are buffeted by technological change that has no respect for industries, companies or past consumer behavior, he warned.

Verizon would end “century of regulation” by killing wireline phone, says NY AG

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman accused Verizon of trying to "depart from a century of telephone service regulation" by ending wireline telephone service in a part of Fire Island devastated by Hurricane Sandy in October, 2012.

In addition, Schneiderman has accused Verizon of violating a state order by telling customers outside of Fire Island that they should accept wireless phone service instead of repairs to their landline service. He says Verizon should be fined $100,000 per customer, per day. Verizon says it has not violated the state order, and that its offer of wireless service outside Fire Island is strictly optional. Verizon is, however, trying to gain state approval to end wireline service entirely in western Fire Island.

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